KANSAS CITY - Influencer videos on TikTok suggest using tape over your mouth while sleeping. You can even buy individual pieces of tape packaged at big box retailers.
"This is not safe for everyone, especially if you already have trouble breathing through your nose, which is probably why you're breathing through your mouth," says Dr. Leah Kaylor, graduate of SLU and a licensed psychologist specializing in sleep for 6 years.
She's also been the FBI sleep expert for the past 5 years.
She says you can have an allergic reaction to the adhesive, it can make you claustrophobic or uncomfortable for anyone with a trauma history.
"This is absolutely not a treatment for sleep apnea. In fact, it can be really dangerous if you have undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea because it's going to make it that much harder for you to breathe at night."
Dr. Kaylor says if you have apnea, and you're mouth taping, "Your brain and your body kind of go into this panic mode - they just kind of pull the fire alarm because essentially what's happening is you do not have enough oxygen."
Dr. Kaylor says your brain will think you're dying and try to wake you up. "Whenever someone has obstructive sleep apnea that happens time after time after time throughout the entire night. And with this, it's leading to strain on the heart, it can lead to uncontrolled high blood pressure. Often times people wake up with a morning headache."
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